Teleconferencing is an increasingly popular form of communication. The recent expansion and advancement of telecommunication technology and telecommunication networks have enabled teleconferencing to offer an extremely viable alternative to in-person meetings. Modern teleconferencing technology is increasingly convenient, low-cost, and effective form of communication. Moreover, communities are becoming increasingly pan-national and even international. For example, as outsourcing increases, many industries require greater collaboration among participants in multiple countries.
These developments have led to an increase in the different types of participants utilizing teleconferencing, as well as the scope and regularity of such teleconferences. More participants are utilizing teleconferencing on a wider range of telecommunication devices, both for business and personal settings.
In view of this growth, the shortcomings of known teleconferencing systems are becoming increasingly problematic. In particular, known teleconferencing systems fail to provide participants with the ability to effectively and efficiently initiate teleconferences with minimal organizational effort. Rather, existing teleconferencing systems often require participants to agree upon particular teleconferencing details (e.g., which participants to invite, the preferred forms of telecommunication for the participants, etc.) in advance of initiating the teleconference. Furthermore, existing teleconference systems fail to offer participants the ability to schedule a teleconference in advance with minimal effort by the organizing participant. Rather, in existing systems, it is often the case that participants organizing the teleconference must personally contact each intended participant, inform them of the teleconference being scheduled, and then initiate the teleconference at the particular scheduled time.
Accordingly, known teleconference systems place an undesirable amount of work and effort on participants organizing teleconferences. This is increasingly problematic in the art given the increasingly routine nature of such teleconferences.